#but this would probably require an industry to become cool with a lot of things very quickly

[witsserviceablesubstitute]

A ramble that's not in good faith, sorry, I know this online discourse gets under my skin. Anyway, context, Tumblr fandoms are very queer inclusive spaces that can forget how queer exclusionary many areas of storytelling can still be. Queer characters are a staple on US and UK television now but continue to have a lot of caveats and constraints.

Fandoms are likely a big part of why queerness in television has come as far as it has in the last few decades. Not for their constructive conversations about queer representation with an industry, but because they make queerness visible and viable. Creators started fighting back. Shows like Xena, whose actors and writers refused to let Gabrielle and Xena be seen as simply 'gal pals'. Refused to let the clear queer subtext be erased. Shows like Steven Universe and The Owl House, who actively went against their networks to ensure their queer romances couldn't be censored.

Can you remember the last time the "let them be friends" arguments applied to anything but the potential canonization of queer subtext? Cast your mind on the major same sex ships over the past 15 years. How many are canonically romantic? The vast majority are, in canon, intimate male friendships. Friendships that hold more importance in the story than any romance. Perhaps ask why this same argument is being applied to a queer relationship with clear romantic subtext? What does erasing that subtext serve and who does it hurt.

[ms-demeanor]

sorry if you've answered this before, and i hope you don't mind me asking, how do you know so much about computers and what seems to me like everything in the world? how did you become so knowledgeable? it's amazing

i just know a little about a lot of things and I probably have a fair number of things that I've dug into more than most people and less than people who actually focus on that stuff! It's kind of an illusion!

I do know a lot about computers and that's because I've worked at a computer company for 12 years and have been deep into a computery subculture for about 20 years - I do genuinely know a lot about consumer computers. That I'll own and that's experience.

I know a fair amount about literature because I've got a degree in it!

I know a fair amount about journalism because I've got most of a degree in it and I worked with journalists for a long time!

I know a fair amount about nutrition because I've got most of a degree in it and because I've been focused on reading a lot about nutrition for more than a decade because of my own food issues!

But mostly I'm just someone who falls down rabbitholes and has a decent ability to recall what I find when I run down them.

Also I get curious about things and will just go. Experience them.

Like at some point i came across a site for people who own and use RealDolls and I got interested in learning more. The site required an application because they didn't want people just trolling so I applied and I ended up reading through the whole site and reading the magazines they sent out for years after because it was just interesting. The way these guys bought clothes or compared repair techniques and cleaning techniques, the way they constructed identities for their dolls - it was all interesting! So now I know about the proper way to store a RealDoll and how their skeletons are put together and the best way to prevent rips or clean inserts.

Now imagine that with everything.

I got interested in quack medicine so I ended up reading the entire back catalogs of quackwatch and science-based medicine.

I got interested in the history of aspartame as a scare-word and I ended up reading a couple of books, SEVERAL entire blogs with decades-long runs, purchasing a military magazine from the 90s, and submitting a FOIA request.

But, like. I don't own a RealDoll or work in that industry. I am not a medical professional. I am not a chemist who works with aspartame. So I get these weird little collections of information where I know what *seems* like a lot to someone who hasn't looked into it but I know a lot less than someone who has taken the time to actually dedicate themselves to that topic.

And sometimes it's a years-long dive and sometimes it's a months-long dive and sometimes it's a few hours of me digging online until I feel satisfied with what I've learned and I never come back to it, but I've got three more talking points than your average joe at a party would.

(Also though I've attended various colleges at various levels for ten-ish years now and I've taken probably more college-level classes on a lot of subjects than most people have because I've now spent several years just kind of kicking around at community colleges and deciding that a cartooning class sounds fun or that a mesoamerican art class fills certain transfer requirements or that I might as well brush up on spanish, french, and german. Access to low-cost college classes in california is a big part of this, and having the time and money to take classes while i'm working is something that I've been very lucky with)

I've also worked pretty much continuously since I was 18, sometimes holding multiple jobs at once, and I know a lot of interesting people who do a lot of interesting things and I ask them about their interesting experiences and if they offer me a chance to go do cool shit with them, like launch a high altitude balloon or blow up some dynamite that's about to expire or join a band, I do it!

I was also one of those kids who had no friends and spent too much time at the library so I'd do things like read through medical textbooks or pull a book of home chemical formulas out of the trash and read it or take it into my head that I was going to read all of Shakespeare before I got to high school so I was a really annoying twelve-year-old and that kind of thing never really let up.

I don't know! I don't think it's that unusual and I think most people do this kind of thing I just happen to have less focus than a lot of people and talk a lot more.

[plaest2k]

hey, im a young nz artist too and i like making comics/want to do something bigger when im older, and i think your stuff is genuinely so fucking cool. i love it so much. i was wondering how you pursued art after highschool, like did you go to art school? if so, where and what was that like, and if not, how’d you find the time to continue doing it? its always felt like my opportunities for a career in art specifically seem smaller living in nz, but idk your stuff inspires me to think otherwise. thank you :)

kia ora!!

thanks so much for asking, it's truly so flattering that a young nz artist would ask me for advice! <3 sadly i might not necessarily be the best person to ask...

First of all, it's been a loooooong time since i've been a young artist hahaha I'm 32. After high school, I studied architecture at university because, as you're probably aware, we don't really have art schools like our peers do overseas. But after studying for a few years, I had a major depressive episode and dropped out. After that, I ran away to Korea to teach english for a year before coming back to work in cafes for about 6 years. Back then I was pursuing a career in editorial illustration cause that's what all my favourite artists were doing but I didn't realise that it was a dying industry at the time and there weren't exactly lot of full-time professional artists here who could have warned me...

So after about 10 years of trying to piece together some kind of profession in illustration, I ended up looking for a tattoo apprenticeship which was looking pretty promising but my bosses turned out to be not-so-great people. I tried to keep tattooing on my own but that was around the time COVID hit which wasn't (and still isn't) great for a job that requires you meet face-to-face with a lot of people. So, since the pandemic began, I've just been subsisting off of jobseeker, chipping away at comics and the occasional illustration gig.

The whole experience had me perpetually burnt out for the past ~15 years and made me realise that art as a career really just shouldn't be a thing. Under capitalism, it requires either an embarrassing level of compromise, privilege or luck to pursue. All the household-name artists you know in NZ either come from privilege or got unbelievably lucky. I don't say this as a value judgment or anything, most of them are truly wonderful people, it's just what I've learned about them as colleagues who've worked together a few times over the years.

I don't fault anyone for wanting to pursue that, but if you want to make uncompromising art that makes you feel fulfilled, you can't stake your livelihood on it. Art is supposed to be a by-product of life well lived, not content to be sold.

It's why I'm making plans to go back to uni next year to switch careers into a cushy office job because, as you've observed, even if you still want to pursue this as a full-time career, opportunities for artists in Aotearoa is extremely limited.

Having said all that, there's still a lot of nuance to this whole thing that would take me too long to cover in a tumblr post, so if you'd like me to elaborate or anything or have more questions, you're more than welcome to contact me through my email: plaest2k@gmail.com!

And this offer extends to literally anyone who might be looking for advice or just wants to talk about art <3

Final thing: the thought of studying something else at college/ university and keeping your art as a hobby might sound bleak when you're young, but life is so much longer than you think. You might feel like you have limitless creativity and ideas at the moment but when it becomes your entire life, you burn through it all faster than you'd think. It's because you need fuel to inform what you make and you can't get that from just making art. Like I always say, art is a by-product of a life well lived; You need life-experiences; You need to love, hate, care, be hated and loved to make art and you can't do that if you're too busy to do any of that. Those 3 years you spend on a bachelors is nothing in comparison to a lifetime of staring at a blank page, agonizing over what to make next.

[teecupangel]

This is because @ma-du who tagged me on this post with the idea:

Everything is the same, but the gang is reborn as Marvel characters

I am going to assume this means that the characters' personalities stay the same, it's just that they have been reborn to live the lives of Marvel characters (Assassins versus Templars plot optional XD)

Alright.

First of all, we’ll focus on MCU characters because having the ability to choose from the entire Marvel roster will… well… it would require more research that would probably take too much time XD

Also, I will primarily be using Phase 1~3 MCU characters (focusing on the Avengers with some exceptions) because the post did have Infinity Saga MCU characters (yeah, that’s the main reason why).

Alright, let’s give everyone some new problems!

Desmond: Moon Knight. Okay, he’s the main reason why I said ‘with some exceptions’. I mean… come on. Come oooonnn. Oh course, Desmond will still suffer thru the Bleeding Episodes which would lead him to be the AC equivalent of Moon Knight. Not to mention, just imagine the absolute fuckery he will suffer thru when he meets up with the reincarnated versions of his ancestors while he still have his ancestors in his brain as the Bleeding Effect. Instead of Khonsu though, I suggest we go for Ra (for the sun irony) or, if you wanna stay in the Greco-Roman mythology that was strongest in Desmond Saga, may I suggest Minerva (to make Minerva suffer with him) or Dionysus?

Altaïr: Doctor Strange, hands down. Used to be an arrogant overachiever? Taken down a peg by some kind of tragedy? Still a bit of an asshole but now has an entire subject he could spend the rest of his life studying and be the top expert still? Becomes leader of a secret-ish organization trying to protect the world in what amounts to a short time all things considered? OP powers with a lot of glowing gold accents AND holds an OP artifact? Altaïr is, hands down, the nearest Doctor Strange we will have on this list. Sidenote: Malik gets Wong’s job of being the usually annoyed dude that has to keep Altaïr from bending the rules too much. The Sanctum Masters are the Rafiqs of Damascus and Jerusalem + Kadar. Karl Mordo will have to be Abbas (sorry Karl Mordo) while Al Mualim would either take the Ancient One (if we plan to keep him good in this one) or Kaecilius.

Ezio: Iron Man. He comes from a rich family with lots of connections, is actually smarter than people usually assume he is, flirts a lot but also carries a torch for a specific person in his life, and a tragedy in his life changed him. Of course, his father wasn’t a dick to him (up to you if we gonna kill Giovanni and Maria off for drama), Federico gets reborn as Happy (who is still Ezio’s brother but preferred to be his security officer), Claudia is still his sister but has Pepper Pott’s job (although, everyone in Auditore Industries knows it’s really Claudia who takes care of the everyday operation, Ezio is the inventor and the face of the company, Claudia is the shadow queen) and Cesare gets to be Justin Hammer. Petruccio can be the kid in Ironman 3 or he's just living his life as the third Auditore child who has cool 'toys' to help his weak body that his brother made for him.

Ratonhnhaké:ton: We can go for Hawkeye/Ronin, the normal human who can keep up with everything that’s happening (also, he would make a good parental figure for the Frye twins). Also, even if we call him ‘normal’, we all know he could kick everyone’s ass thru sheer determination and stubbornness alone. Another option would be Black Panther but I kinda want Adéwalé to be Black Panther?

Haytham: … is it weird I kinda want him to be Nick Fury? Like… he’s the all-time suffering man in charge who doesn’t actually have any authority over any of the superheroes he ‘conscripted’? I just want Haytham to suffer while, for once, not being on the other side.

Edward: Okay… I mean… I know there would be a Phase 1~3 character that would work for him, the easiest would be making him part of the Asgardian family drama but, may I suggest a non-MCU character? Daimon Helstrom. Because Edward’s actor Matt Ryan is sooo good as Constantine that I will always think of him as Constantine. Helstrom is the nearest Marvel equivalent to Constantine and he’s also a free agent type which works well with Edward’s character for most of Black Flag. (plus I got “canceled after a good season 1” deja vu with Helstrom as I did with Constantine). If you really want him to be part of Phase 1~3, Antman (Scott Lang) would work with Jenny taking the place of the daughter Cassie.

Shay: If Haytham is our Nick Fury, Shay gets to be his Maria Hill (second-in-command, normal human that can kick so much ass, and… that tight outfit) or Phil Coulson if you wanna go down the route of Shay doing his own thing.

Arno: Spider-Man because I think Ezio mentoring him would be a nice touch and… his first love Élise being a Templar is kinda similar to how Liz was the Vulture’s daughter. Still thinking about who his Ned should be though.

Evie and Jacob: Look, we’re talking about twins here so I’m pretty much obligated to make Evie and Jacob Wanda and Pietro. Although, this time, Jacob’s not gonna die. XD

Bayek: Steve Rogers (no, he will not be called Captain America, think of a more ‘universal’ superhero name) because he’s an all-around good guy, his default weapon in AC promotional images has him using a shield, and he started out as a man who just wanted to do what was right and protect his people that got sucked into the overarching plot because of a tragedy. Also… Aya as a badass normal human like Peggy Carter, hhhmmm?

Kassandra: You know, I was thinking that Kassandra could be Steve Rogers with Alexios becoming Winter Soldier. (Which I think would still work, we’ll just have to change Bayek into someone else…) But Kassandra has to be Captain Marvel, right? The OP powers and “not to be a lesbian but oh my god oh my god” vibes she gave off just made her suited to be Captain Marvel more.

Eivor: She’s gotta be reborn as Thor, right? Like… sure, Odin is right there but Eivor’s love for fighting and her loyalty to her people feels more like Thor than Odin. (Let’s not make AC Odin reborn as MCU Odin. I’d even go for Varin to be reborn as her father again or even Sigurd to have a bit of arrogance at this point)

Basim: Look. We all know Basim’s gonna be reborn as… Korg. Of course, I’m kidding. He’ll be reborn as Loki as we all expected. XD

Clay: Deadpool. He’s supposed to be dead, his mind got shattered after receiving his ‘superpowers’, and… he’s the only person in this cast other than Desmond that actually remembers who he was before. His whole ‘knows about the fourth wall’ shtick is connected to the fact that he still has access to the Calculations and that’s actually what broke his mind�� again.

[max1461]

hi! did you study linguistics and maths seperately? or as a sort of double major program thing? sounds like a perfect combination btw, what career/research options would it lend itself to? ✨

I did a double major. So it was one degree (i.e. I didn’t go to undergrad twice), but I completed the requirements for a math major and a linguistics major separately. It wasn’t a combined major, which also existed at my school, but not for math/ling. Actually, fun fact, my friend (the “friend who knows econ” that I sometimes mention) did a double major where one of the majors was a combined major, so he got his degree in “economics and math/comp-sci”. Which I always thought was pretty cool.

It was a really great combination IMO, I feel like I kind of... “get it” as a result of studying this particular combination of things in a way that many people do not “get it”. I think both math and linguistics are fields that a little experience with will save you from a lot of meta errors, a lot of fallacious ways of thinking become immediately obvious if you’ve studied one or the other field, so I feel like the combination of the two kind of... helped me avoid a wide swath of types of bad thinking. I think the trifecta for this would be math/linguistics/analytic philosophy, if you spent serious time learning about all those I feel like it would make you into, just, very not-bad thinker. Maybe I should read more analytic philosophy.

Anyway, as for career paths I don’t really know. I mean I’m in grad school for linguistics right now, which is... a career path. But probably becoming an academic is basically a bad idea unless you are crazy. I mean idk. But the job market is just miserable, and the things you’re expected to put up with early in your career seem miserable, it’s something that I’m quite worried about going forward. Right now I’ve just started my grad program though and everything is pretty nice, so I’ll have to report back with first hand experience once I reach the later stages. Other than that, I think I’d be pretty well positioned to do something related to natural language processing or other tech stuff if I could program. I can sort of program but I’m bad at it. I’m slowly working on getting better because it seems like a prerequisite for basically all industry jobs.

But tbh I don’t like programming very much, o think if I had to do it as my day job I would go insane. Probably if academia doesn’t work out I’ll look for something “mathy” in industry that’s not related to any of the stuff I’ve actually been studying. Idk.

[wumblr]

let's pick up where i left off this morning

Alongside the current defense programs through the Department of the Air Force microreactor pathfinder at Eielson AFB and the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) Strategic Capabilities Office (SCO) Project Pele prototype transportable microreactor protype, the Army is taking a key role in exploring the deployment of advanced  reactors that help meet their energy needs

from the first link:

built-in safety features that self-adjust to changing conditions and demands to prevent overheating

precisely how this "self-adjustment" is administrated makes the difference between a safer design and a much less safe design, but the idea that this may not be an improvement is never considered

The developer will own and operate the micro-reactor licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to deliver electricity and steam to the proposed location of Eielson AFB in exchange for DAF’s long-term purchase of energy it generates

you guys laughed at the bitcoin boat guy when he said nuclear policy was one of the most overregulated industries but i can't help but notice no one is laughing now because i'm the only person who kept up with this

Defense Logistics Agency’s energy office recently rescinded the Notice of Intent to Award, due to a pre-filing notice of protest submitted to the Court of Federal Claims. This type of action is common in a source selection process and the department still aims to meet the 2027 timeline for the project.

i don't know why they didn't provide a link to that, but it's an objection to having been excluded from the bidding process by a company called kinemetrics, who make seismic monitoring equipment. this is starting to pull at the loose threads in the "self-adjustment" problem: the reactor is supposed to be designed to self-adjust to prevent meltdown during an earthquake. i don't have much to say about that other than "lol"

let's move onto the second link in the fact sheet, project pele:

SCO will construct an inherently safe by design nuclear microreactor capable of being transported by the DoD and able to deliver 1-5 MegaWatts of electrical power for a minimum of three years of full power operation

see, the thing about this is, no matter how many times you say it, it doesn't suddenly become physically possible. 1-5mwh, sure, it's "inherently safe by design" and "capable of being transported by the department of defense" that make this impossible

This reactor will be assembled and initially operated at Idaho National Laboratory (INL)

oh good, they're siting it at the same place as the first meltdown in the US

In March 2020, Project Pele announced a Notice of Intent (NOI) to conduct an environmental analysis in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). At the same time, SCO kicked off a two-year microreactor design competition. The NEPA was conducted such that it would envelope in scope all possible reactor designs allowed under Pele’s technical requirements.

this is one of the issues i have with how environmental impact assessments are structured in nuclear policy: disclaiming that risks may be unforeseen or unforeseeable is not really an assessment of environmental impact. you can see this structure playing out at every existing reactor in the US, where the enviromental impact did not allow for simply reracking the fuel rods in the cooling pools indefinitely, because they were all operating under the assumption we would build longterm storage, which we haven't. the NRC routinely approves extensions that go far beyond the initial enviromental impact assessment without making any revisions to it. this is because they don't have any other options, and being truthful with the public about it would probably get a lot of reactors closed

Today, SCO Director Jay Dryer released a ROD on construction and testing drawn from the analysis performed within a Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS), published in the Federal Register. The Record of Decision and the Environmental Impact Statement, as well as supporting documentation, are available online at https://www.MobileMicroReactorEIS.com. 

that's weird, i can't get that link to work. but the wayback machine can (i'm not going to presume malice there, it takes effort to keep a website up for longer than 2yrs, but i am going to ask, why is biden namedropping a program that fell off so long ago, admittedly during his administration, that the website is down? shouldn't somebody have checked that before putting it in a white house fact sheet. "look, here's a list of things we've done" i would love to look actually, you thought no one would?)

that doesn't sound very carbon-free (EIS draft p36)

ah, now we're getting somewhere. turns out this has already caused an incident

union of concerned scientists

let's go back to project pele:

SCO is considering engineering designs developed by two competing teams: BWXT Advanced Technologies, LLC, Lynchburg, Virginia; and X-energy, LLC, Greenbelt, Maryland

before we examine each design individually, i would like to highlight two more things

The DoD uses approximately 30 terawatt-hours of electricity per year and more than 10 million gallons of fuel per day A decision by the DoD on whether or not to transition the technology and to use it operationally will be made at a future date

at optimal 5mw power capacity, which has not been demonstrated (for the 2021 documents we're examining), it would take 6 million reactors to meet the DOD's energy consumption, not including the 10m gal of fossil fuel use. this is a farce

moving onto BWXT, oh boy

do i. even. need to say anything about that. it's HGTR, see the UCS PDF above for more criticism of that

60+ year proven track record

that's a weird thing to say about a design with precisely zero operational units providing power to the grid. "none of the research reactors exploded" okay, fine, you're doing better than sl1, i'll give you that. pretty low bar though!

the x-energy site is not really worth visiting unless you would like to look at plain white 3d renderings or watch a sleekly produced video that doesn't really cover any of the meat of the issue, but they do have a pretty telling FAQ

hey, xe100, doesn't that sound familiar? yeah, refer back to the UCS PDF again. i don't know if the problem here is just that they're willfully naive or they've never actually studied any past incidents but saying "the reactor operates at 800c and can withstand temperatures up to 1600c" is laughably inadequate. i literally just perused the sl1 final report yesterday, you would not believe the amount of thermal energy that thing released, and neither, apparently, would the company responsible for designing next gen reactors

and if you're keeping track, we've made it through half of one paragraph of drivel from the white house fact sheet! let's look at the second half:

These efforts will help inform the regulatory and supply chain pathways that will pave the path for additional deployments of advanced nuclear technology to provide clean, reliable energy for federal installations and other critical infrastructure.

"inform the regulatory and supply chain pathways" = deregulate. "energy for federal installations and other critical infrastructure" = it is more important to us to ensure the army has energy than it is to ensure the people do

Idaho National Laboratory is also releasing a new advanced nuclear reactor capital cost reduction pathway tool that will help developers and stakeholders to assess cost drivers for new projects.

i am NOT going to dig into this spreadsheet except to point out the only reason we're assessing capital costs at all is because it's not connected to the grid and thus costs can't be passed on to the consumer. this is, of course, another form of misdirection: who pays for the DOD budget. hello. back to the fact sheet:

The Administration notes the completion of units 3 and 4 of the Vogtle nuclear power plant in Georgia, the first new reactors built in the United States in over 30 years, and a result of the efforts and collaboration between utilities, developers, and end users to finance new nuclear projects, as well as the over 9,000 workers, many of whom were union, and the residents of Georgia to help the project reach a successful outcome

i would like to know more about what proportion of vogtle is union and who isn't

The DOE Loan Programs Office (LPO) has committed $12 billion in loan guarantees for the construction as well as technical expertise, project monitoring, and issue mitigation support that would have been otherwise unavailable in the private sector. LPO’s low rates also means hundreds of millions of dollars in annual cost savings for Georgians.

oh, this is going to drive me fucking insane. "we're not even charging you that much interest for the loans we couldn't get from the private sector because it's uninsurable!" (it's necessary to read between the lines here, but American Nuclear Insurers is an organization created by and comprised of reactor operators themselves, because nobody else would do it)

that's not nearly the end of the fact sheet but it is nearly the end of my patience. maybe tomorrow we'll get to palisades, diablo canyon, the inflation reduction act tax credit, or the ARDP list of developers

okay

For decades, nuclear power has been the largest source of clean energy in the United States, accounting for 19% of total energy produced last year

false. first sentence. off to a great start. you may notice this is a 2022 chart but i can tell you the only new reactors started since then are vogtle 3 and 4 (you may notice that's not a new power plant but new reactors at an existing plant), years late and $17b over budget, vogtle as a whole produces 1.1gwh, we use about 29 million annually. point being: it has not risen to 19%, the last reactor since vogtle was watts bar in 2016 and since then we've decommissioned 14 of them

The industry directly employs nearly 60,000 workers in good paying jobs

weirdly low estimate, almost by half

maintains these jobs for decades

"maintains" is doing a lot of work here, does that include toxic exposure payouts? because they are still fighting pretty hard to get those in the world's first nuclear contamination site, hanford

and supports hundreds of thousands of other workers

✅ true! 475,000 according to the NEI link above

In the midst of transformational changes taking place throughout the U.S. energy system

sure

the Biden-Harris Administration is continuing to build on President Biden’s unprecedented goal of a carbon free electricity sector by 2035

have they developed carbon free cement yet? (yes.) at scale? (no.) are we just not counting construction emissions because they're one-time emissions investments or how does this work exactly, i would love to know because i think we're also not counting emissions from waste transport to longterm storage because we haven't started doing that. anyway they've built a train for it even though we don't have a storage site so that's umm. that's uhh. fine i'm sure

while also ensuring that consumers across the country have access to affordable, reliable electric power

i guess you can still say "across the country" if you exclude texas as an outlier

and creating good-paying clean energy jobs.

i guess you can still call them good paying clean energy jobs if everybody who mines and refines the uranium dies of cancer because you just pulled out of the largest disarmament program in history due to it being geopolitically inadmissible (for russia... to continue... selling us the uranium from decommissioning...? i'm still trying to figure out the optics of that one but anyway as i have previously stated we didn't actually stop buying it in cases where it's "liable to cause supply chain issues")

Alongside renewable power sources like wind and solar, a new generation of nuclear reactors is now capturing the attention of a wide range of stakeholders

weird way to say that

for nuclear energy’s ability to produce clean, reliable energy and meet the needs of a fast-growing economy, driven by President Biden’s Investing in America agenda and manufacturing boom.

this is a carrier sentence to inject the president's name, but i would like to question which sectors of the growing economy are driving the most energy demand because i'm sure there are no nasty truths being elided there (it's computing)

The Administration recognizes that decarbonizing our power system, which accounts for a quarter of all the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions, represents a pivotal challenge requiring all the expertise and ingenuity our nation can deliver.

it's time once again for... the energy flow sankey chart! the reason the power system accounts for a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions is in no small part because 67% of it is lost to waste heat. has the nation's expertise and ingenuity started working on that yet

The Biden-Harris Administration is today hosting a White House Summit on Domestic Nuclear Deployment, highlighting the collective progress being made from across the public and private sectors

oh boy! a summit! talking about it is the same as doing it

Under President Biden’s leadership, the Administration has taken a number of actions to strengthen our nation’s energy and economic security by reducing – and putting us on the path to eliminating – our reliance on Russian uranium for civil nuclear power and building a new supply chain for nuclear fuel

gosh, i got ahead of myself and already criticized both of those things

including: signing on to last year’s multi-country declaration at COP28 to triple nuclear energy capacity globally by 2050

everybody criticized that

developing new reactor designs

which ones, the bill gates project that just got cancelled because utilities pulled out (edit: that's nuscale, the bill gates project is terrapower), the rolls royce submarine, or the one that just got regulatory approval (edit: this is also nuscale)

extending the service lives of existing nuclear reactors

yep! you sure showed the embrittlement at diablo canyon by doing nothing about it

and growing the momentum behind new deployments

nonsense clause, but it has this really ominous undercurrent due to its vagueness

Recognizing the importance of both the existing U.S. nuclear fleet and continued build out of large nuclear power plants, the U.S. is also taking steps to mitigate project risks associated with large nuclear builds and position U.S. industry to support an aggressive deployment target.

this one is not nonsense but they can't just out and out say "we are deregulating the industry because opening the process for public comment is most often the thing that slows it down" because then somebody might realize they're bulldozing ahead no matter what any constituent says, does, or actually wants

To help drive reactor deployment while ensuring ratepayers and project stakeholders are better protected, theAdministration is announcing today the creation of a Nuclear Power Project Management and Delivery working group that will draw on leading experts from across the nuclear and megaproject construction industry to help identify opportunities to proactively mitigate sources of cost and schedule overrun risk

i'm sure a revolving door working group packed with industry insiders can solve this without compromising their commitment to the profit motive, not that it particularly matters since the cost is passed on to the consumer in the form of fees on the electric bill

The United States Army is also announcing that it will soon release a Request for Information to inform a deployment program for advanced reactors to power multiple Army sites in the United States

good god... that is a fresh nightmare i did not see coming

Additionally, the Department of Energy released today a new primer highlighting the expected enhanced safety of advanced nuclear reactors

"expected" really serves to demonstrate several points i've made

i'm going to stop going line by line here because i know this is already too boring and long for anyone to read this far, unless anybody wants to know what i think about parts 50, 52, and 53 of the NRC licensing guidance -- which many of you have very clearly stated over the years that you don't -- and while i do want to acknowledge that it does go into more detail and even answer some of the questions i raised (vogtle comes up, diablo canyon comes up, a list of which SMR designs is given, or at least a list of the companies responsible for them),

what i would like to focus on is one conspicuous absence:

the reason we need a new fleet of reactors is because they are an essential part of the bomb production chain. they are the beginning of the refinement process, and we cannot carry out the plan (already underway) to replace the minutemen missiles currently in silos with sentinel missiles without significant new construction. we cannot start the president's desired wars with russia and china without the new sentinels. he's not going to be the one to carry this out, he's ensuring whoever is his successor in about 2030 or more likely 2040 will be armed to do so. limited amount of time left to prevent that

[plastparekh]

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[dagdasgodslayer]

[Mr. Bell believed in him...that was both reassuring and terrifying. From the sound of it, he'd only botch this opportunity if he did so intentionally. Afton Robotics didn't know the circumstances that led to the acquisition of his power, so that tracked...but it didn't make him feel any less uneasy. So long as he kept Dagda a secret, he could make the most of this, right?]

[...He'd have to.]

❝ Wow -- uh, thank you. ❞ [Worried as he was, his teacher was being unyieldingly optimistic and encouraging...as always. If it weren't for his feelings of inferiority, Mr. Bell's words would have inspired confidence. Even if he couldn't internalize any of it, he did genuinely appreciate Bell's support.] ❝ I'll try -- no, I'll do my best. ❞

[They were the same? It wasn't exactly difficult to picture Mr. Bell as normal ( Nanashi had always assumed that he was an "average joe" ), but the knowledge that he'd become super seemingly out of nowhere struck him. In a way, that was what Nanashi was experiencing now...albeit with a side of helplessness. Assuming that he'd have to lie throughout this endeavor, he'd been worried about that "community" bit -- but maybe it'd be more useful than he thought. After all, nobody knew what Nanashi was going through ( if he played his cards right, then nobody ever would ), but maybe he'd meet others who kind of understood him.]

❝ Yeah...that'll be nice. ❞ [Nanashi mused, mostly to himself.] ❝ You said you started out normal, too? What was, um...how did you deal with becoming super out of nowhere? ❞

[It had everything? Once again, this sounded too good to be true, but it was Afton Robotics...the tech side of the company was probably so profitable that they could afford all sorts of amenities. Hell, they'd probably contributed some of their own resources, being a pioneer of the technological industry and all. Nanashi could only imagine what their facilities looked like...it sounded so cool.]

[Even more interesting was Mr. Bell's allusion to a time when he couldn't even control his powers. To some extent, Nanashi could truly relate to that...he felt out of control himself. For different reasons, but still.]

❝ So you couldn't control your powers? How'd they help with that? ❞ [The answer would likely be obvious, but if Steven was willing to go into any detail....he sort of wondered if it'd help him in the end. Probably not, but...he was curious either way.]

[Mr. Bell remarked that Nanashi had a good grasp on his abilities -- to some extent, he'd trained himself by following Dagda's advice, but "control" didn't feel like the right term. He'd adjusted. He'd gotten used to the feelings of death and revival, developed a strong pain tolerance, and honed his power to do as much damage as possible while avoiding outright destruction. That wasn't control; it was adaptation.]

[As anticipated, this facility sounded like the best possible place for him. Those training courses definitely appealed, too ( although learning that the tech class wouldn't be taught by Mr. Bell was a bit disheartening ). If they were offering to take him under their wing, no payment required, he had to accept. Even if it wouldn't help, even though Dagda would always loom over him...he wanted to go there and learn what he could.]

❝ It sounds like it. The only way they could improve is by having you teach tech. ❞ [Nanashi smiled, finally easing up on this whole situation. It was a lot of pressure and a ton of information all at once, but maybe he could pull it off.]

[Mr. Bell expressed his enthusiasm again, then gave Nanashi another chance to ask away -- he wasn't really sure what to ask about now, though. Most of what he wanted to know would be revealed when he visited the place.]

❝ I'm not sure, I...I think I'll be able to think of more stuff to ask when I'm actually there. ❞ [Though, come to think of it, there was one pressing concern on his mind.] ❝ Actually...my family. Do you guys tell them what's going on? And, uh, the "protection" thing you mentioned earlier...does that cover them, too? ❞

"Of course! And I'm not the only one. The people I've told about you-- they're really looking forward to meeting you. ...I won't lie, you can still blow this if you really try. But I believe in you, I know you'll show them what you've shown me." Steven smiles again. The implication is clear and intended: I know you won't let me down.

Oh, that's fascinating. Does Nanashi mean he wasn't born with his powers, or that they took time to manifest? Steven taps at the headphones around his neck, activating a simple reminder system that will helpfully yell at him in a few hours that there's something he's supposed to remember for a report.

"I told you we were the same. I know where you're coming from. It's a huge step, going from being--" nobody. Nothing. Useless. "--uh, 'normal,' to going to the top of the heap. If it helps, most of the people you'll meet at AR have gone through the same thing. That's what I mean about the community aspect-- you'll finally be around people who actually understand what you're dealing with."

Aaaand... done. Steven's gotten Nanashi through the door, and the bulk of his job is over, now. Sure, he'll answer questions, and he still needs to physically walk the kid over, but retention is someone else's concern. Easy-peasy! ...it's almost a shame. He'll miss working one-on-one with Nanashi. Considering the differences in their abilities, it's unlikely they'll be sent on many assignments together.

Bell relaxes now that he's in the home stretch, and when he starts talking about the program, it's with the same casual, genuine enthusiasm that he shows in class when he's explaining the history of telegraphs and Morse Code.

"Oh, it's got everything! I mean, it's been a while since I was your age, heh, but if it's the same as before, it's-- it's well-rounded, I'll put it that way. There are definitely cool training classes. My cohort, we-- most of us couldn't handle our powers at first. At all."

God, those first few weeks had been hell. Steven's not a telepath, but he imagines their powers come with similar difficulties; without the experience needed to effectively tune in and out of all the billions of fucking transmissions being channeled through his head, Steven had nearly lost himself. But the company had saved him, first with a mechanical chip in his brain to do the filtering for him, and then by teaching him how to do it for himself.

"I know you've gotten a handle on yours, but they'll be able to teach you how to make the best use of them, if that's something you want. There's, uh, classes in combat, tech-- not taught by me, unfortunately-- subterfuge, all the stuff you'd expect from a fancy place like that. It's just incredible! And the facilities... I'm telling you, Nanashi, this is literally the best program money can buy." Yes, there are other facilities out there doing similar things, but Steven thinks they're stupid and inferior on principle.

"Sorry, that probably makes you feel even more overwhelmed. We'll ease you into things. I'm just-- absolutely thrilled you'll be giving this a shot! Is there anything you're specifically concerned about, when it comes to the program or your, uh, situation?"